For many Americans, guns are seen as a symbol of their freedom. They look at guns as if they are freedom itself. For them, it is as important to our national identity as “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Stars and Stripes”. They are considered so important. According to a poll, conducted by the New York Daily, American men put their gun as their tenth most prized possession. This is just right behind vinyl records. The problem with guns compared to vinyl records is that guns were invented for the sole purpose of killing.

According to edutube.org, there are 90 guns per every 100 Americans. That is almost a third more than the next country on the list. That country is Yemen, which has been in a violent civil war since 2015. There has not been a battle on the soil of the lower 48 states since the Civil War. With all of that, it would seem a little bit of over kill to have so many guns.

Many politicians and political pundits will tell you that having so many guns is a good thing. If we were ever to get invaded there would be 300 million armed soldiers repelling the invasion, right? If you want 300 million armed vigilantes roaming the streets making a bad situation even worse, then be my guest. I would rather leave that job to professionally trained soldiers and police forces.

This surplus of guns has, of course, made it easier for the common man to get his hands on one. This in turn has lead to the U.S. being the world leader in gun violence. According to National Public Radio, there were 3.55 violent gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2013. That is over five times more than the next Western country, Portugal, which is a mere 0.55 violent gun deaths per 100,000 people.

It’s easy to see that guns aren’t necessarily a good thing, so why don’t we just start pushing harsher regulations against the gun industry. I am not saying that we should ban guns altogether. I know for a lot of people their gun is a lot more than just a gun, it symbolizes their freedom, and while I don’t agree with this, I think we should respect their culture to some extent.

However, there is no need for automatic weapons designed to kill large amounts of people at once on the streets. The argument that gun control of this nature wouldn’t work is just wrong. I know we can’t ban guns altogether, because guns that are simple to make, like hand guns, would still be out there, but we need to do something. There is no need to have guns that can fire off 15 bullets at a time into one person. We need to make a difference to protect everyone in this country.